Chapter 3
Taylor
I crept into the house as quietly as possible, not wanting to be heard. Unfortunately it wasn’t quiet enough. “Taylor, I thought I told you to come straight home after school today” I heard my mom say as she found me sneaking in.
“Well, that’s pretty tough when you don’t have car, and your stupid friends forget to give you a ride” I told her coping my usual attitude. “I would have been a hell of a lot later if someone else hadn’t noticed me waiting.”
My mother sighed, probably not believing me, but she didn’t feel like pressing the issue. “Taylor please, just keep your voice down. Zoë is asleep.”
“Fine” I said and sulked up to my room. I resisted the urge to slam the door. If there was one person in my family I got along with, it was my baby sister. Everyone else considered me the black sheep of the family, just because I didn’t conform to their perfect ways. Not Zoë though, she was too young. All she cared about was that she had a big brother that would pick her up, and play with her, and give her wild airplane rides around the house. I clung to her, because she was my sanity. I decided to respect my mother’s wishes, and not wake her up.
I sighed, shaking the thoughts out of my head. I picked up my guitar and started strumming it lightly, until I was playing “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin. I always played it when I was in a bad mood, and I always knew why. Heaven always seemed like such a better place then where I was living now. It scared me when I thought like that. I didn’t really want to die; I just got frustrated with life sometimes. Every time it happened, I always thought about something good in my life at the time. Sometimes it was hard to find something I was satisfied with, but today my thoughts immediately shifted to Cindy.
I started to wonder why I was thinking of her. She was a nice girl; nice enough give my sorry ass a ride home. I guess she was pretty too. But she was different, not like most of the girls I was attracted too. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Usually when it came to girls, I knew what I wanted and how to go about getting it. From what little I knew about her, I had the feeling she was one of those ‘good girls,’ one who rarely ever did anything wrong. I got this feeling in the pit of my stomach that she would never give a ‘bad guy’ like me the time of day. I figured I probably shouldn’t even bother.
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Cindy
I entered my new house to find my dad poring over some papers at the kitchen table. “Hi daddy” I said taking a seat next to him.
“Hi sweetheart, how was your first day?” he asked looking up from his work.
“It was good” I told him.
“It took you a while to get home” he said.
“Yeah, I had a meeting with the principal after school, and then I gave a friend a ride home” I explained.
“A new friend already?” he asked.
“Oh, just someone in a couple of my classes. I noticed him still there after school, and offered a ride” I told him. I noticed his eyebrows raise at the word him. ‘Oh great, here we go’ I thought.
Let me back up and explain something. I never really knew my mother. I guess she couldn’t handle the military lifestyle my dad led. She packed up and left him when I was just 2. My dad did a fine job raising me on his own, but there were certain subjects that he was a little touchy with. The main one being guys. It was like he wanted to be fair to me, but also protect me, and he never knew how to go about doing that just right.
“Dad, don’t give me that look” I finally broke the silence. “He’s just a guy that I happen to have a couple classes with, and he was nice enough to introduce himself and talk to me for a while. I just thought I’d return the favor. Who knows if it’ll ever happen again.”
“Alright, if you say so. I’m only trying to look out for your feelings though” he protested.
“I know, I’m lucky to have a dad like you. But it was only my first day and I just wanted to make some friends. Who knows what tomorrow will be like? You don’t need to start worrying about me just yet” I told him grinning.
“Well, I’m glad you did make some new friends” he said.
“Thanks dad” I said kissing his cheek. “I’m gonna go do some homework now.”
I sighed and headed up to my room. I settled on my bed and pulled out my history book to answer some questions the teacher had assigned. I looked the book and grinned. History class, it meant I would see Taylor bright and early the next morning. Studying would be a hard thing after that thought.
